It’s winter, so it must be time for a new lighting thread. Looking for a replacement for a Philips Safelight. It works very well with an excellent beam pattern, but the battery duration is terrible. I want a light with a properly shaped beam to avoid dazzling other road users. Battery power preferred.

I would like about 1.5 hrs max on high. My Saferide has never been close to that even with brand new batteries. Using the inbuilt charger or charging the batteries separately makes no difference - best I get on high is less than an hour. My commute takes around 65-70 minutes, so I have to do the first half where there's good street lighting on low power, and then switch to high power for the poorly illuminated back streets and bike paths for the rest. As I ride a recumbent where the light is out of reach when on the move, this is workable, but inconvenient.

Your idea of an upgrade to use external batteries is a good one that I've also considered. Unfortunately the LED mounting is integrated into the driver circuit board so it's a bit of work to change. Also thought about fitting a remote switch to easily cycle between high and low.

Well, my Saferide must have got wind that I was plotting against it, because last night it refused to charge at all. All the blue charge lights are just flashing off and on together. Not sure what that means, hopefully it's just a duff battery.

have a look at the Cygolite Expilion range. i'm using the Expilion 720 and a single light in "medium" mode is bright enough for me, when cycling on pitch dark roads (with no street lights).

- strong beefy case- has a replaceable battery should you need more than 1.- can be charged via USB port.- has a small lip on the top of the light to cut-off the glare for oncoming traffic, though i'm not sure how effective that is.

nandystam wrote:I'm also looking for a new light. Is anyone using the Fenix BC30? It has removeable batteries (unlike the BC30R) a shaped beam pattern, and decent runtime as it uses 18650 batteries.

I need something that can produce enough light for bike paths where there is no ambient/nearby lighting.

The Fenix BC30 does NOT have a shaped beam. What it has is two conical reflectors, one spot and one flood, plus a small clip on visor to try & give it a horizon. You can see the two spots clearly on this pic from FenixWhat you will notice is that the "close in" spot is overexposed. Your eyes however do not work the same as a digital camera, instead your pupil will contract to the level of the "close in" spot & the rest will appear darker. As you raise the angle of the light, the close in spot will move further away, decreasing the effect, but also raising the horizon & the risk of annoying people coming toward you

With an ideal shaped beam, your eyes will perceive the same level of light close in as at a distance. This is much easier said than done. Phillips did a very good job of this with the saferide & I have yet to see any other manufacturer come close

I've seen the Cygolite, my concern with that one is that the battery, while removable, is in some kind of proprietary canister. If you can actually replace the battery inside that, that's great. Otherwise you're paying whatever Cygolite feel like charging for a replacement

find_bruce wrote:The Fenix BC30 does NOT have a shaped beam. What it has is two conical reflectors, one spot and one flood, plus a small clip on visor to try & give it a horizon. You can see the two spots clearly on this pic from Fenix

It's very bright on high and lasts around 2hrs on that setting. On the lower 500lm setting I get around twice that.My main issue is the beam as it has no shroud so can dazzle others, but I usually nudge it down for oncoming cyclists or pedestrians.For the price though it's a great light.

With its strong and durable lithium Li-Ion USB-rechargeable battery, it features 3 power modes: boost (60 Lux), normal (30 Lux) and eco (10 Lux). Switching from one power mode to the other is very easy,with its multifunctional safe-switch – one long pressure to switch on and off, one quick pressure to switch between the modes. The respective burning hours per power mode are 5h (boost), 9h (normal) and 16h (eco). Battery almost empty? Not a problem: the handy battery load indicator gives a signal after which you are right on time to charge the battery, with the USB-cable (supplied) within about 4h.

Where I ride at night it is totally dark, I tend to a combination of Lezyne 800XL (not really so good) or Light and Motion Urban 550 (better than the Lezyne) and for those times when the ride will be a long one (3 hours or more) then I use Ay-up lights because those are super dependable. The Ay-Ups are handy with each light being able to be tilted.

If someone is riding towards me, I'll just put my hand over the light to make it less bright.

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